Side door elevator



Sept. 22, 1931. s rr 1,824,412

SIDE DOOR ELEVATOR Filed April 7. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 p 22, m N. K. SMITH 1,824,412

SIDE DOOR ELEVATOR Filed April 7, 1930 2 Shoots-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 22, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE NELSON K. SMITH, 0! LOS .ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOB TO BYRON JACKSON 00.. 7 OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE SIDE DOOR ELEVATOR Application filed April 7, 1980. Serial No. 442,259.

make provision for retention of the well casing, or other member that is being supported by the elevator, by other means than the door so that the casing cannot become accidentally dislodged from the elevator prior to closing and latching of.the door.

Another object is to accomplish the foregoing stated object by providing means that cooperate with the casing collar or coupling. Another important object is to provide a latch that operates in a vertical plane, the

path of movement of said latch also being in a vertical plane.

In some respects this invention is an imrovement on that disclosed in the patent issued May 15, 1928, to Edward L. Rick,

No. 1,670,048. In said former patent is disclosed a construction for causing the elevator door to rise so as to disengage interlocking portions of the door and body. The construction disclosed in said patent caused relatively rapid rising of the door, and I have improved on the patented construction by providing a construction which is simple and which, at the same time, can be readily designed to secure rising of the door a given amount over a greater length of o ning arc than is possible with the patents construction mentioned above.

Another important object is to provide a latch construction that makes it necessary,

when the door is closed and latched, to first E3511 thedoor inwardly before the latch can operated to release the door. Another important object is to accomplish holding of the door in its open position.

Another object is to accomplish holding of the door in open and closed positions by mounting thehinge pin aslant in a direction that will necessitate the operator swinging the free end of the door upwardly against the force of gravity during the first part of the opening movement of the door and, also,

swinging of the door upwardly against the force of gravity during the first closing movement of the door.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the subjoined detailed description.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention:

Figure 1 is a plan view. of a side door elevator constructed in accordance with the provisions of this-invention.

- Figure 2 is a front elevation of Figure 1.

part of the Fig. 3 is an elevation from the right of Fig. 4. a

Fig. 4 is a fragmental view, partly in section on the line indicated by 4-4, Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a fragmental front elevation of a modified form of the invention showing the' latch and a portion of the door.

Fig. 6 is a fragmental lan view of the inodified form of the invention, partly in section on the line indicated by 66, Fig. 5.

Referring at present more particularly to Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings, two members or jaws 8, 9 are provided. The jaw 8 may be considered the body of the tool and the jaw 9 is commonly known as the door. The body 8 and door 9 are hingedly connected by a pivot or pin 10, the mounting-ofwhich is preferably of special construction to secure rising of the door relative to the body when'the door is being opened and lowering of said door when the dooris to be closed. This special mounting of the pivot will now be described:

The pivot 10 is not positioned parallel to the axis of the elevator bore 11 but is at an angle to said axis. Viewed from either side of -the body 8, the pivot 10 extends aslant downwardly and outwardly,'as shown in Fig.

3.-- Viewed from a position in front of the door of the elevator, the pivot 10 is positioned so that it extends aslant inwardly and downwardly, as shown in Fig. 2. The end portions of the pivot 10 are mounted in upper and lower ears 12, 13 of the body 8, said pivot being preferably fixed in said ears. The pivot 10 passes through upper and lower cars 14, 15 of the door 9, said ears 14, 15 being, in this instance, disposed between the ears 12, 13. The holes 16 in the cars 12, 13, 14, 15 are constructed so that their axes extend aslant to the axis of the bore 11, the slant being the 19 same as described above for the pivot in order to secure the desired slant of the pivot. When the door is open it is supported by reason of the ear resting on the ear 13 and when said door is closed it is not only supported by the ear 13 but is also supported at its free end by a shoulder 17 on the body 8.

The lower face 18 of-the ear 15 and the upper face 19 of the ear 13, being adapted to engage, are disposed at a right angle to the pivot 10 so that in the opening movement of the door 9 erfect hinging takes place and the full area 0 the faces 18, 19 are in engagement. Preferably the lower face 20 of the ear 12 and the upper face 21 of the ear 14, ,also, are disosed'ata right angle to the pin, though said aces 20, 21 need not necessarily be in engagement but, preferably, are slightly spaced as indicated in Fig. 2.

'llhe slant of the pivot 10, as viewed from either side of the elevator and as viewed from the front, has been described above, and, in this instance, the amount of slant is such that the upper and lower ends of the axis of the pivot are substantially on the same are of a circle of which the axis of the bore 11 is the center, or, in other words, the upper and lower ends of the pivot are approximately the same distance from the axis of the bore.

The body 8 is provided at its opposite ends with supporting trunnions 22, which are in alignment and the prolonged axes of which pass through the axis of the bore 11. These trunnions 22 need not be further described, nor the latches 23, which cooperate therewith, as they constitute no portion of the present .invention and may be of any suitable con struction for connecting the elevator with links of a bail of the character employed with elevators of this type.

-The bore 11 comprises the concave inner face 24 of the body 8 and the concave inner face 25 of the door 9. The face 24 extends over 180 of circular measurement while the face 25 extends over considerably less than 180 of circular measurement. The face 24 is substantially circular for 180 and'said face has forwardly and outwardly flaring portions 26 so as to readily admit of the entrance of the casing or other member that is to be supported by the elevator. The faces 24, 26 terminate at their up r ends in raised horizontal seats or faces 271 28 which are above the level of the surrounding portions of the body and door, and on which the collar or coupling of the casing or other member is adapted to rest when the elevator is in place on said casing. The seat 27 is more than 180 of circular measurement and the body 8 is provided adjacent to the outer margins of the forward tips of the seat '28 with upwardly extending abutments '29, the inner faces 29 of which, in this instance, extend forwardly and inwardly to points that are above the outwardly flaring portions 26. The

faces 29 are abovethe level of the seat 27 and the forward ends of the abutments 29 are forward of the transverse vertical central plane of the elevator and the space between the forward ends of the abutments 29 is somewhat less than the outside diameter of the collar or coupling on the casing, drill pipe, or other member that the elevator is designed to support, whereas the spacebetween the rear ends of said abutments is slightly greater than the said outside diameter. Thus, when the casing collar or. coupling is seated on the seat 28, the casing cannot accidentally slip out of the elevator, even though the door 9 should not have been closed and latched. Also, it will readily appear that when the door 9 is closed, because of the presence of the abutments 29, said abutments function to prevent the casing or drill pipe, supported by the elevator, from pressing outwardly against the door 9, and producing stress on the door hinge or pivot and on any latch that may be employed for releasably securing the door to the body.

Though any suitable latch may be employed with the construction hereinbefore described, there is provided a special latch which will now be described: Mounted in the body 8 and projecting forwardly therefrom is a latch pivot 30, said pivot being horizontally positioned or at a right angle to the bore of the elevator. In this instance, the axis of the pivot 30 is in a plane that is offset from the bore of the elevator, as clearly shown in Fig.

1. The pivot 30 is at a right angle to a vertical plane passing'through the trunnions 22. Hung on the pivot 30 is a latch 31, the tip 32 of which is adapted to engage behind a shoulder 33 that is formed by the outer face of the outer end of a lug 34 that projects laterally from one end portion of the door 9. Preferably the shoulder 33 extends aslant inward- 1y toward the door and the front face of t e latch tip 32 has a complementary slant, as shown at v35, so as to closely cooperate with the shoulder 33 to hold the door in closed position. This construction of the shoulder 33 and face 35 tends to prevent opening of the latch, since, to open said latch, it is first necessary to move the door 9 inwardly in order that said latch may pass the outer end of the shoulder 33.

' The latch includes an upwardly extending arm 36 and said latch is yieldingly held in latching position by a coil spring 37 which has one end resting against the latch 31 outwardly from the pivot 30 while the other end of said spring rests within an angular lug 38 that projects forwardly from the body 8. Between the lug 38'and the body is a slot 39 into which the latch projects. The arm 36 is provided with a handle 40 that projects laterally from said arm. The handle 40 projects into a plane that passes through a handle 41 projecting outwardly from the middle portion of the door, thus facilitating release of the latch with one hand of the operator and opening of the door with the operators other hand.

The foregoing described construction operates as follows Assuming that the elevator bails are connected with the trunnions 22 and that the door 9 is open, the elevator will be swung into a position to receive the casing or tubing in the recessv 24 of the body 8 and the o erator will then close the door 9 and coincident-ally the elevator will be raised to cause the coupling or collar to seat on the seats 27, 28.

These elevators are operated very rapidly and it re uires considerable quickness on the part of t e operator to close the door as th closing must be done while the elevator is rising into position to engage beneath the coupling or collar.

If, through inadvertence, the operator fails to close the door 9 so as to be held by the latch,

the tubing or casing cannot slip out of the body 8 because to do so the coupling or collar would have to escape past the forward ends of the abutments 29 and this is im ossible because the distance between the orward ends of the abutments 29 is less than the di-' ameter of the coupling or collar. It will be noted that, when the door is in closed posi tion, the weight imposed on it by the tubing will hold it closed whether or not the door is latched. It will now be readily seen that there is a three-fold insurance against the tubing accidentally escaping from the elevator, one preventive being the abutments 29, another bein the weight of the tubing tending, to hold being the slant of the shoulder 33 and/or slant 35 of thelatch tip which necessitates that the door be pushed inwardly beforethe latch can be thrown into position to release the door.

When it is desired to release the elevator from the tubing or casing, the elevator will be lowered to disengage the seats 27, 28 from the coupling or collar, the latch will be re-' tracted and then the door will be opened. In the opening movement of the door, the free end of the door must first "rise. to a higher level until it reaches the midopen position and the door then is caused, by gravity, to de-i scend to a lower level than the midopen posiv tion, in consequence of which. the door will be maintained in open position by gravity.- The elevator will be lowered sufliciently to bring the upper edges of the abutments 29 below the level of the lower end ofthe coupling or collar so that the body of the elevator can be moved rearwardlv and in such movement pling or collar.

Now referring more particularly to Figures 5 and 6 of the drawings, which illustrate a modified form of the latch, thdelements t e door closed, and still anotherthat correspond in function to those herein before described, are indicated b the same reference characters with the addltion of the suffix a.

The principal difference between this latch construction and that above described is that this modified latch is mounted on the door and because of this certain modifications of the construction are necessary, or advisable. The coil spring 37 a has one end in engagement with an upwardly extending arm 42 of the latch 31a and has its other end engaging within aseat 38a in the door. In this instance, the lug 34a is angular and projects forwardly from the body 8 and the latch 31a engages behind the tip of the lug 34a. The latch 31a is mounted in a vertical slot 39a in the door and the pivot 30a extendsacross said slot and has its opposite ends extending through holes 43, 44; in the door. The arm 36a is of angular construction and terminates in a laterally extending handle 40a.

It will now be clear that the two forms of latch operate substantially alike and that they both operate in a vertical plane.

I claim:

1. A side door elevator comprising a body provided with a concave recess, and a door pivoted to the body to close the o 11 side of said recess, the door pivot exten ing aslant downwardly and outwardly when vi wed from either side of the body and extending aslant inwardly and downwardly when viewed from a position in front of the door.

2. A side door elevatorcomprising a body provided with a concave recess, and a door pivoted to the body to close the open side of said recess, the pivot being aslant relative to the vertical axis of the elevator and the upper and lower ends of the pivot being approximately the same distance from said axis of the elevator.

3. A side door elevator comprising a body provided with a-concave recess, and a door pivoted to the body to close the open side of saidrecess, the door pivot extending aslant downwardly and outwardly when viewed from either side ofthe body and extending aslant inwardly and downwardly when viewed'from aposition in front of the door,

the upper andlower ends of the pivot being approximately the same distance from the axis of the elevator bore.

'i 4. A side door elevator comprisin a body provided with a concave recess, a oor pivoted to the body to close the open side of said recess, and ears on the body and door, respectively, one resting on the other, the door pivot passing through said ears and extending aslant downwardly and outwardly when viewed from either side of the body and extending aslant inwardly and downwardly hen viewed from a position in front of the door.

5. A side door elevator comprising a body provided with a concave recess, a door pivoted to the body to close the open side of said recess, and ears on thebody and door, respectively, one resting on the other, the door pivot passing through said ears and extending aslant downwardly and outwardly when viewed from either side of the body and extending aslant inwardly and downwardly when viewed from a position in front of the door, the engaging faces of the ears being at a right angle to the pivot so that in the opening and closing movement of the door the entire areas of said faces are in engagement.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 2nd day of April 1930. NELSON K. SMITH. 

